When setting the White Balance in Lightrooms’ Develop Module you have to look for a neutral area of the image. This can be somewhat of a trial and error process.

I find an easy way is to focus my attention on the RGB pecentages as I move the white balance tool around likely areas.

You are looking for all three RGB values to be as near to 50% as possible. Then click with the white balance tool and the white balance is set.

Works well. Not rocket science - but it works.

Try it and see.

Update following comments feedback

You should make sure you pick an area of the image which you know should be neutral for this method to work properly - a grey color of some kind. The tip is more about getting the RGB values right once you have selected the area in the image.

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Tags: White balance, Develop Module, RGB Tool

Lightroom beta 2.0 has an excellent Selective Correction brush tool. This allows very precise corrections to made.

I recently had a problem using this tool in that I could not see the effect of the edits or where they had been made. My mistake. I found that I had accidently turned off the Tool Overlay!
So turn the Tool Overlay back on via the View menu.

You can select Auto Show, Always Show, or as I had Never Show. I find Auto Show to be the most useful as the edit points will be hidden when the cursor is moved away from the image area.

Now you can see the pin makers which show where your edits have taken place. If you now hover you cursor over one of the edit pins the area that has been affected by the correction brush will be shown outlined in white. See below.

Finally, to remove an edit, position your cursor over the pin mark and press the delete key. The edit will be removed along with a nice animated effect.
I hope this help you.

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Tags: Library Tips, Selective Correction Tool, Develop Module

When using Lightrooms' spot healing tools it is worth trying both the Clone and the Heal tools in order to see which gives the best result. As an example look at removing the red object in the portion of the sea in the image below.

The result with the Heal tool does a pretty good job. Now lets right click within the source region. This will bring up a menu which will let you switch between the Heal and the Clone tools. Note you can also select either tool in the toolbar.

In this case the Clone tool has done a better job of matching the sea. The Heal tool produced distracting light areas.

The Heal tool is usually selected as it samples the color and texture of the target area and attempts to blend in the results. The Clone tool just copies the pixels.

All this tip is saying is try both rather than just rely on one or the other.

Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module, Clone Tool

I have added a new short article in the Techniques section on Auto Dust Spot Removal using Lightroom.

You can use Lightrooms Copy function in the Develop Module to semi-automate the removal of sensor dust spots from multiple images.. This short article describes how to do this using Lightrooms' Copy Tool.

Read the full Auto Dust Spot Removal using Lightroom article.

Let me know if this helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module

In the Develop Module pressing 'W' activates the White Balance Tool. You can then move the Eye- dropper over the image to set a white (gray) point.

Once you have set the white balance the Eye dropper disappears. That is unless you have un-checked the Auto Dismiss Box on the Toolbar. Note the Toolbar needs to be active to do this. Press the 'T' key to toggle the Toolbar.

Try it and see for yourself.

Let me know if this tip helps you.

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If you want a very quick look to see if an image works in black and white just select the image and press the 'V' key. You can quickly switch back and forth and between color and grayscale.

It works in both the Develop and Library Module. It also works in the Grid mode of the Library Module. There is a menu option in the develop module but its quicker to use the single 'V' key.

Where this really becomes very useful is when you select a set of images in the Library Module and can instantly see which will work well in grayscale. Select images and then press 'V'

Try it and see for yourself.

Let me know if this tip helps you.

Note: Thanks again to Steve Mcgonnell who highlighted the grayscale switch via an email to the Image-Space.

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Lightroom has a very useful 'Before/After' function which allows you to switch back and forward in the Develop Module between the original, and edited image, using the '\' key.

The default behavior of 'Before/After' is to switch between the current state and the un-edited image.
What you may not know is that you can choose which individual Lightroom history state you want to switch between!

There are many other Before/After ' views available from the Toolbar, including top-bottom, left-right splits plus the same views but with a split-screen.

So how do you select intermediate states?

If you right-click on any of the History states you will see a menu and you can select 'Copy History Step Settings to Before'. as shown below. This allows you to switch back and forth between an intermediate editing state.

This is particularly useful when you are working on black and white image conversions. If you use the default you will switch back and forward between a colour and a black and white image.

You can set the Before/After point to switch between the Convert to Grayscale state and your current edit. Much more useful. Especially for black and white work.

Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module

The crop tool in Lightroom has some interesting overlays which are worth exploring. These overlays can be used to crop and position image elements in the frame to aid composition.

As well as the usual grid there are a number of other overlays which can be cycled through.

Type 'R' from anywhere in Lightroom and you will be taken to the Develop Module and placed into the Grid mode.

Now cycle through the available overlays using the 'O' key.

The available overlays are:

Lightroom Available Crop Overlays

Lightroom will remember your last overlay selection.
Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module

I have added a new short article on "Accurate White Balance in Lightroom using a Gray Card".

If you have ever wanted to ensure that you get the correct white balance for your lighting conditions then try a gray card. This short article describes an easy way to use a Gray Card and then how to process the results with ease in Lightroom.

Link to the full "Accurate White Balance in Lightroom using a Gray Card".

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Tags: Develop Module

If you use Lightroom a lot then you can easily overlook some of the easy workflow shortcuts.

I often find myself using the main reset button, at the bottom right of the Develop Panel, even when I only want to undo the last adjustment. I then have to repeat the whole develop process.

There is a much more flexible way.

You hold down the 'alt' key whilst clicking the tool name. In the example below the tool name changes from 'Tone' to 'Reset Tone' . Now only this individual adjustment is reset.

Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module

There is a very good new Quicktime Tutorial on Black and White conversion by Martin Evening available at Lightroom-New.com .
It shows how the HSL de-saturation sliders can be used in conjunction with the other colour controls to achieve stunning black and white conversions.

If you use the grayscale sliders most of the remaining colour controls will have no effect. Martin's method allows the use of all them and also keeps the amount of noise to a minimum.

Tips for better black and white conversions
Check it out

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Tags: Develop Module

Lightroom has a host of new sharpening functionality which means that a round trip to Photoshop is now not often required.

The all new sharpening tools can be found under the Detail section of the Develop Module. They apply sharpening and noise reduction to the image file post capture and are not intended for final print sharpening, which is performed from within the Print Module.

The new Detail section now has a number significant changes.
The old dialog box just had a sharpening Amount slider plus the Luminance and Color noise sliders.
The new one has:

• 
  
• a warning triangle which appears if you are working with a zoom less than 1:1. Sharpening is
  best done at 1:1 or greater zoom and clicking on the warning triangle will auto zoom the image for you
• 
  
• Amount as before
• 
  
• Radius control - similar to the pixel Radius setting in Photoshops Unsharp Mask
• 
  
• A Detail slider which is great for improving the sharpening of high frequency details such as foliage. Reduce the amount of Detail sharpening to avoid over-sharpening grass for example.
• 
  
• a Masking slider similar to the Threshold Photoshop slider
• 
  

This new sharpening tool is very powerful but what I find very useful is the visual feedback you get when you hold down the Alt key whilst using the Masking Slider.

You get a grey view of the image - a portion is shown as an example above - which shows exactly where the sharpening will be applied. The white edge areas will be sharpened in the example above.

I was not aware of this visual feedback until I stumbled over it by chance. Try and see.
Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module

Lightroom 1.1 allows you to change the default settings for how Camera Raw converts specific file types and camera models.

After you have made changes to the sliders in the Develop Module you hold down the "alt" key whilst clicking the Reset button (bottom left). The Reset button changes to "Set Default..." as shown above.

Depending on the selected image type and camera, you will get a dialog which allows you update the current settings. They then become the default for that image amd camera combination.

You can restore the default Adobe settings for an individual image and camera by using the same dialog box.
Hope this tip helps you.

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Tags: Develop Module

Lightroom allows you to step through, and view, the history of edits and adjustments; much in the way the Photoshop does. Note that since Lightroom never changes your original image you are only viewing the effect of the various editing steps.

Lightrooms history browser

You can click on any of the states in the history browser and view the image at that state or even return the editing process to that state.

An easily overlooked but very powerful feature of Lightroom.

Hope you find this useful.

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Lightroom has a very powerful grayscale conversion tool which allows you to adjust the colour sliders just as if you were applying different amount of colour filtration to a black and white image.
If you use the Develop Modules "before and after" split view It becomes much easier, and more effective to make slider adjustments.

The Split view in the Develop Module before Grayscale conversion

Once you convert the image to grayscale you can then see both the original colour image and the converted grayscale. Now suppose you want to darken the blue sky it becomes much easier to see the effect with both views in screen.

Split view used to view the real time effect of the slider adjustments

The colour image shows that the foreground is best lightened using the Orange slider and you can see the effect whilst keeping the original colour image in view.

Very powerful.

Hope you find this useful.

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The Clone Tool in the Develop Module has a lot of flexibility. It is very quick an easy to click on a dust spot and remove it. The tool makes a guess at the texture and colour that you are repairing and selects an area adjacent which it thinks will give the best result. This is how Photoshop CS2 does it as well. The diference is that Photoshop does not show you the area from which is selecting the new texture.

Lightroom - Clone / Heal Tool

In the picture below the red circle is the area being repaired and the green circle is the area selected to provide the repair.

Clone Tool in action

What you may not have noticed is that you can select the green circle and change both it's position and size to obtain a better result. This can be done with either the mouse or via the keyboard arrow keys. Shift arrow is a course move and control arrow is a fine move. On the Mac use command arrow to change the size of the tool.

Hope you find this useful.

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Tags: Develop Module

Lightroom v1 has a powerful new feature called 'Snapshot' which allows you to save and re-apply a sequence of edits on any image. It's a bit like Photoshops' Action but far easier to use.

It can be found under the History Panel on the left hand side of Develop Module.

Snapshot Function in Lightroom

It is used as follows:

• 
  
• Perform a sequence of edits in the Develop Module which will be automatically recored in the History section.
• 
  
• when you have finished right click on any one of the steps in the history list
• 
  
• You will see the "Create Snapshot" indicator appear as shown below
• 
  
• The snapshot is saved with the name of the action you highlighted and will be available under the Snapshot menu for use on any future image editing session
• 
  
• You can then re-name the Snapshot to something more meaningfull and use it on any future session.
  

Creating the Snapshot Function in Lightroom

This is not as powerful as Actions in Photoshop, but it's not meant to be.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Hope you find this useful.

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There is a very powerful new tool in Lightroom v1 called the Targeted Adjustment tool which offers incredible control over color and grayscale correction.

It is activated by clicking on a small circular icon in the top left hand corner of the curves box in the Develop module. Note that the same tool is also available for HSL / Color / Grayscale adjustments.

Lightroom Targeted Adjustment tool

It is simple to use.

1. You decide what you want to adjust, say the Tone Curve as shown above
2. 
   
3. Select the Targeted Adjustment tool. Notice the cursor changes to a cross with the tool icon slightly below and to the right of it.
4. 
   
5. Select a part of the image with the color range that you want to adjust.
6. 
   
7. Then hold the mouse button down and move the mouse up and down

As you do this, in the Tone Curve example, you will see that the curve has a point on it which is representative of the color range you are interested in. When you move the mouse you are then selecting and adjusting only the required part of the curve .
You are able to easily fine tune the mid-tones or the shadows as well as a host of other adjustments which would require guesswork, or at the very least lots of experience, to be sure of picking the right point on the curve.

This same process works for Hue, Saturation and Grayscale.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Hope you find this useful.

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